Louise Turpin & David Turpin Bankruptcy Records: Read

Seven years before authorities accused David and Louise Turpin of subjecting their 13 children to torture and mistreatment, the family suffered serious financial problems. Court records show the Turpins declared bankruptcy in 2011, and the documents shed light on the parents’ occupations and background.

The couple, who ran a day school at their home in Perris, California, is now accused of mistreating their children by allegedly shackling some of them to beds and starving them.

You can read the court documents in their bankruptcy filing here:

The family was not without means at one time. At the time of the bankruptcy, the couple was living in Murrieta, California with their then-12 children. Although they had a lot of mouths to feed, the court records indicate that David Turpin earned more than $11,000 a month working as an engineer for Northrop Grumman, a global security company in San Diego. He also received QuickSilver royalties, the court records showed. It’s not clear where David Turpin was working at the time of his arrest, which authorities revealed on January 15, 2018.

Riverside County Sheriff\’s Department

However, the family was struggling with credit card and other debt, including from a farm foreclosure, in 2011, the records show. David Turpin listed a 401K from Lockheed Martin as an asset. It had more than $80,000 in it. The couple’s bankruptcy attorney, Ivan Trahan, told The New York Times that the couple spoke often and “highly” about their children, and that they had 12 at the time of the filing.

In a news release, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department alleged that one of the couple’s children, a 17-year-old girl, managed to obtain a cellular device, escape the home, and call 911. The teenager – who was so emaciated that she appeared to only be 10 – alleged that her siblings were being held captive inside the home, with some shackled to their beds.

FacebookDavid and Louise Turpin.

Authorities went to investigate, and, when they spoke to the Turpins, neither parent could present a logical reason for the restraints, the press release says. “Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that 7 of them were actually adults, ranging in age from 18 to 29,” according to the release. The 13th child is the one who alerted authorities. The parents are being held on $9 million bail – each, the release said.

The family’s home address matches county records that “indicate that the Turpins own a property at 160 Muir Woods Road. That address matches that of Sandcastle Day School, whose principal, state Department of Education Records say, is David Turpin,” reports The Press-Enterprise.

FacebookThe family posed with an Elvis impersonator when the Turpins renewed their vows in 2016.

Authorities say there are 13 victims in the case, ranging from age 2 to 29, and they added that the children said they were “starving,” the release alleges. “Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” the release says.

This is the Perris, CA home where deputies arrested David & Luise Turpin on torture charges against their 13 kids. Investigators say one child escaped the home telling them her siblings were being held captive. Some shackled with chains to the bed. #NBC7pic.twitter.com/NHftSU1RUf

On Facebook, the family presented a different picture, although none of the photos publicly available shows the children after July 2016. However, before that time, family photos show the children on trips to Disneyland and posing at their parents’ wedding vow renewal with an Elvis impersonator. The children are wearing matching frocks in some of the family pictures.

You can read more about David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin here:

I think this is going to turn out to be a tragic story of financial problems – redundancy, debt and unemployment, lack of financial aid while still trying to live “The American Dream” (big happy family, Disney etc). That coupled with control lissues, illness, mental heatlh problems, inflexible fundementalist Christian views etc. combining to turn a would be fairy story book perfect life into a horrific nightmare for them all. So sad. Wish all the children well.

Psalms 91:1-4 (KJV) [1] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
[3] Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
[4] He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

In this psalm the words penned here seems to come from a man who has experienced trouble and danger and who has sought the refuge of the Lord.

It is the story of the man who had exposed himself to dangers Just as an innocent or naive chicKen who is away from its Mother. It has seen danger approach and runs under the Security of its wings. He is like the bird who was about to be trapped by the Hunter who has Set up a Net to catch it. A man who is vulnerable because he has no armour covering him when he is in a battle.

Circumstances that David wrote this psalm: Bible scholars feel that what happened in 2 Sam 24:1-14 could be the setting for writing this psalm

David:

David was a man who had the experience of living in the shadow of the almighty. in the Forest when facing Goliath etc. He got the name of a man who was after Gods own heart.

Yet He was also a man who yields to temptation and sins against God. That is actually an encouragement to many of weak people like us.

. 2 Samuel 24:1-4 (KJV) [1] And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
[2] For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
[3] And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
[4] Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

In 2 Samuel 24:1-4 (KJV) David was at war with the Philistines. The devil set a trap for him to Number his people. However, this census of Israel’s potential army did not have the sanction of the Lord and proceeded from wrong motives. David either wanted to glory in the size of his fighting force or take more territory than what the Lord had granted him. This was the fowlers snare he talks about it in Psalm 91:3. The great thing about David was that he had a sensitive heart and immediately knew that he had committed a sin. He confesses his sin to God in 2 Samuel 24:10. However he had to face the consequences of going against Gods will and had to face the consequences of his action.
God offers him three options as punishments and he chooses the pestilence. A plague or pestilence is a punishment from the Lord when they sin.

2 Samuel 24:12-15 (KJV)
[12] Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
[13] So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
[14] And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
[15] ¶ So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

It is here that David weighs these options and decides to fall in to the hands of God rather than the hands of Philistines from whom no mercy can be expected. After committing something against the Lord, David recognises that it will be more tolerable to offer himself to the Lord. It is here that he runs like the frightened chicken under the wings of its mother ie God.

. 2 Samuel 24:16 (NIV) [16] When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

The Lord relents and limits HIS punishment as David had anticipated.

All these experiences made him write Psalm 91 and his trust in the Lords protection in times of trouble.

David was able to experience the protection offered by wings of God through a difficult and a painful experience, mainly on account of his pride or disobedience.

If only he had listened to the story of his great grandmother, David would have learnt his lesson of obedience in a more peaceful way.

Ruth 2:7-12 (NIV) [7] She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
[8] So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. [9] Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
[10] At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
[11] Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. [12] May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Ruth: Ruth’s experience of God of Israel was through the family of Elimelech and Naomi. She loved her mother in law and was willing to undertake a risky journey to an unknown land and people. She had put her faith on the God of her mother in law and gave up on her gods. God who works in mysterious ways directs her to the field of Boaz for gathering her food. It was Gods spirit who was working through all this. Boaz recognises that she has come to take refuge under the wings of the Lord God of Israel.

Here we find two characters who both find refuge under the wings of the Almighty God, one after a painful experience, but for Ruth it was a very pleasant experience.

The lesson for us this morning is whether we are disobedient and proud like David or humble and trusting like Ruth Gods wings is a place of refuge for both types of people.

As we begin a new year our hope is our God who is like a mother hen to us a strong fortress in times of trouble, under whose wings there is security.
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